AEON acquires Acadgild

AEON Learning Pvt. Ltd, which owns education technology platform Avagmah has bought Bengaluru based education start-up Acadgild for $10 Million in an all-stock deal.

Avagmah is a start-up focused on online degrees and skill development programmes. It claims to have 22,000 students across 66 countries, and has partnerships with more than seven institutes and universities. Acadgild offers skill-based technology courses in big data, deep learning and UI/UX design web development, among others. It works with businesses to offer around 35 skill development courses.

Acadgild had raised initial investment from venture capital firm Jupiter Capital and K. Ganesh of GrowthStory. It works with companies like General Electric, Capgemini, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Oracle Corporation. Currently, around half of AEON Learning’s online students come from Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR, Karthik added. The company has raised $6.5 million till date and expects to reach a student base of over 100,000 in the next five years.

According to a KPMG-Google, the online higher education market is expected to touch $1.96 billion by 2021. Re-skilling and online certification courses currently account for a majority (38%) of the online higher education market, the report added. There has also been a surge in investments in the online education sector, with online skill training start-ups shifting focus from a university-based curriculum to a more industry-oriented training approach.

Byju buys TutorVista and Edurite

Education Technology start-up Byju has acquired global education company Pearson Plc.’s TutorVista and Edurite for an undisclosed amount, in a move aimed at expanding global reach as well as offerings for students.

TutorVista gets about 70% of the traffic on its website from the US. Pearson in 2009 acquired a 17% stake in Bangalore-headquartered TutorVista and in January 2011 purchased another 59% stake for Rs577 crore. It increased its controlling stake to 80% from 76% in the same year. In February 2013, it acquired the remaining 20%.

TutorVista operates in four business segments-online tutorials; digital content and information and communication technologies for schools; test preparation and offline coaching to students; and the management of K-12 schools. TutorVista had acquired Edurite in 2007. Today, Edurite sells educational CDs and DVDs.

Byju has been one of the few growth stage start-ups to have raised multiple rounds of funds in 2016, apart from food tech start-up Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd). The company raised about $75 million from Sequoia Capital and Belgian family office Sofina in March 2016. In September, Byju raised $50 million in a round led by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, becoming the first Asian investment for the personal fund set up by Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. In December, the company raised another $15 million from World Bank arm International Finance Corp.

Careers360 acquires Entrancecorner.com

Education service provider Careers360 has acquired Delhi-based Education start-up Entrancecorner.com which prepares candidates for entrance seats. This is Careers360 second acquisition in December. Earlier this month, the company has acquired online enrolment startup NoPaperForms.

Entrancecorner.com acquisition will help Careers360 expand its reach and deliver better value to all stakeholders. Entrancecorner.com is a lead student portal in India despite facing competition from some well-funded portals. Entrancecorner.com entire team will move to a new office and operate under the Careers360 management. Careers360 in a short span has established itself for its credibility, reach and audiences.

Entrancecorner.com helps students at different phases of their academic career: explore different careers options, help them make informed career decisions as well as equip them with resources to realize their career choice. It also provides latest news and updates about careers and exams, guidance from experts in different careers, exam preparation material, and social platform to connect with similar students, free test series, admissions and counseling details etc.

Last year, Careers360 raised capital from five angel investors for expanding its business of helping students take career decisions. Its investors include Ranjan Pai venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy and education company Career Launcher founder Satya Narayanan R. 

Careers360 acquires NoPaperForms

Maheshwer Peri-promoted Careers360, an education service provider acquired Mumbai based education start-up NoPaperForms for an undisclosed amount. NoPaperForms is a four year old enrolment management platform that helps colleges and universities manage their online admission process.

The acquisition will help Careers360 augment and strengthen its B2B clientele offering and help institutes spend smartly on digital media. Currently, NoPaperForms is managing more than 200,000 applications for 30+ clients that include top B-schools and universities. With their market reach coupled with investments in technology and product they hope to deploy the platform in 500 plus college within the next 2-3 years.

Internet penetration growing, the pace of online admission will grow further and the company under Careers360 will tap the market better. Last year, Careers360 raised capital from five angel investors for expanding its business of helping students take career decisions. Careers360 investors include Ranjan Pai, Venture Capitalist Mahesh Murthy and education company Career Launcher founder Satya Narayanan R.

MockBank acqui-hires Litoro

MockBank Learning Pvt. Ltd, a test preparation start-up for government jobs has acquired Vijayawada based web and mobile services company Litoro Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.  The purchase is part of a so-called acqui-hire strategy in which one company buys another to gain access to the target talent pool rather than its products and services.

Litoro was founded in 2012. In September, MockBank raised $400,000 in a seed round of funding led by Blume Ventures. Singapore based angel fund Mercatus Capital and angel investors such as SlideShare co-founder Amit Ranjan and Bain and Co. India chairman Srivatsan Rajan also participated in the round.

MockBank focuses on jobs related to the banking financial services and insurance sector, including public sector banks, Reserve Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India. MockBank also plans to explore categories like civil and judicial services, engineering and teaching. The company claims to have more than 100,000 users over 5,000 among them being paying customers. MockBank charges customers between Rs. 150 and Rs. 6000 depending on the services.

India has become the largest e-learning market after the US, and the sector is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 17.4% between 2013 and 2018, twice as fast as the global average. At least 73 companies in the online education segment have raised institutional capital this year. About $63 Million have been pumped into this sector since 2014, while Simplilearn which has raised $28 Million, and Toppr with about $12.2 Million.

Toppr.com acquires EasyPrep

Online test preparation platform Toppr.com has acquired Jodhpur based EasyPrep an online platform to help students prepare for entrance exams, for an undisclosed amount. Entrance Exam preparation market for K-12 Students is valued at $8 Billion and growing 20 percent every year.

EasyPrep is a customized exam creation platform for schools, coaching institutes and teachers and an exam preparation platform for students. EasyPrep provides an online/offline platform for schools, coaching institutes and teachers to create exam papers for their classroom teaching, for student’s assessment and for helping students prepare for competitive examinations.

Toppr.com provides students with insights into their strong and weak areas through which they can effectively decide where to invest their time in practicing for the entrance examination. It also predicts what rank they will have on the basis of their current performance and how they can improve their rank. The analysis gives the student a real picture and motivation to improve and reach in IIT.

In a short span, Toppr.com has a grown team of over 100 members and serving over 1, 50,000+ students across India. Earlier this month, Singapore based XSEED Education Pte acquired online learning management business of Pleolabs, an Indian Education technology startup. 

LinkedIn bought Lynda.com

Lynda.com is a privately held online education company offering thousands of video courses in software, creative, and business skills. It was founded in 1995. The company produces video tutorials taught by industry experts. Members have unlimited access to watch the videos, which are primarily educational. It has more than 500 employees worldwide, and offers instruction in German, French, and Spanish through its branded division, video2brain.

The career social network LinkedIn bought Lynda.com in a cash stock deal valued at $1.5 Million. Mission of both the companies is equally aligned. When integrated with the hundreds of Millions of members and millions of jobs on LinkedIn, Lynda.com can change the way in which people connect to opportunity. The acquisition combines 52 percent cash payout and 48 percent stock.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest online professional network, and with more than four million members, 267k video tutorials, and 6300 courses. LinkedIn has reported revenue growth of nearly 50 percent in each of the last three quarters, helped by rapid expansion in international markets such as China. This is the largest deal for LinkedIn in 12 years. LinkedIn generated $2.2 Billion in sales last year. Lynda.com made more than $150 Million in revenue last year and has turned a profit since 1997.